Ice Station Nerdly

Yesterday, I held my semi-annual mini-convention that I call "Ice Station Nerdly." I call it that because I go to an annual gaming meetup called "Camp Nerdly" in Prince William Forest Park down in Triangle, VA.

I started this last fall, with a small little gathering that had only 5-7 people. But I got to meet two new friends out of it, and tried out a game called "Spirit of the Century" for the first time. In February 2008, I had the first Ice Station. We had a total of 15 people attend that, and played 6 games. It was a lot of fun, and let me really enter the local (Washington DC area) gaming scene.

Yesterday, we had about 15 people. I got to play two games, a playtest of a new game by Jason Morningstar called Fiasco, and a new space marine game called "3:16 Carnage Among the Stars." Four other games were played, including "The Princess Game," "Dirty Secrets," "Misspent Youth," and "A Thousand and One Nights."

While unfinished, Fiasco has a great deal of potential. Its basic premise is to create a scenario where the characters needs lead to a horribly complex mess, like a Cohen Brothers movie (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading). You roll dice to determine what your relationships are with the other players, then determine what you need, and what objects and locations are involved. It only takes 16 six-sided dice to play, and we played two games in about 3-4 hours. Every time, the story spiraled out of control and left us struggling (in a fun way) to get out of messes of our own design. I hope Jason goes on to publish this, because I would buy it.

The other game I played, 3:16, is a straightforward enough game. You're a space marine, going out and killing aliens before they kill you. The game mechanic is to roll a ten-sided die and see if you roll under your Fighting Ability or Non-Fighting Ability. That's it. Your weapons do a certain amount of Kills, not damage. That's right, you kill at least one alien, if not more, with every shot. You accumulate kills to earn promotions, better equipment, and to improve your scores. All in all, it's a nice beer & pretzels game that can be played quickly and is fun. I recommend it.

Everyone had a lot of fun, we ate a lot of good food (beef stew, baked spaghetti, tomato & squash soup, with homemade ice cream for dessert) and met and gamed with friends new and old. Really, mini-cons are a great way to meet people and have fun, so you should think of holding one. Here are a few tips:

1. Post the invite on an internet forum, like Story Games.
2. Tell people to sign up in the thread, and keep a running total.
3. Find out who wants to run a game, and set up a schedule.
4. Make sure you know how many people you can fit in your gaming space, and how many games you can run simultaneously.
5. As host, you're responsible for supplying some food and drinks, but you don't have to bring it all. Many gamers will be willing to bring something.

You can see my thread for Ice Station Nerdly Fall 2008 here.

Reading: Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Movie: Gamers: Dorkness Rising (DVD)
TV: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles